South Africa want Gary Kirsten, India's World Cup-winning coach

India's South African coach, Gary Kirsten, gets a ride on players' shoulders after their World Cup win. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters

Gary Kirsten has admitted within hours of India winning the World Cup that he has been approached by South Africa to take over their vacant coaching position.

During his three years in charge Kirsten guided India to their first World Cup victory for 28 years and also helped them to become the top‑ranked Test team in the world.

His success was based on a constant determination to improve India's mental strength and fitness levels and a shrewd recognition that he must remain in the background to allow India's star players to take the credit for their success.

"They have approached me but I've said I'm not going to make any decisions just yet," he said. "I need to take some time off and clear my mind for a while after this magnificent journey.

South Africa have been planning since December for a replacement for Corrie van Zyl, who took temporary charge 15 months ago after Mickey Arthur's resignation and will revert to his role as head of the high- performance centre in Pretoria.

Their anxiety to appoint Kirsten will be deepened by memories of their latest failure in a major one-day competition, crashing out to New Zealand at the quarter-final stage while a Kirsten-led India brought national rejoicing.

"From a while back we wanted to win the World Cup and become the No1 ranked Test team in the world, so to have achieved both is amazing," Kirsten said. "We've had incredible support but for me the credit goes to the players. They have handled huge expectation and pressure, they have worked really hard, prepared really well and, when they have needed to make the big contributions under pressure, they have done that."

Kirsten, the scorer of more than 7,000 Test runs for South Africa, was renowned as one of its grittiest competitors. When he took up the India coaching role in March 2008, one year after the team's ignominious World Cup campaign in the Caribbean, many predicted a culture clash. But his approach was subtler than many imagined and the professionalism that he instilled was illustrated by India's calm pursuit of their target of 275 against Sri Lanka in Mumbai.

India's players have been showered with gifts after their World Cup win, none more so than the captain, MS Dhoni, whose unbeaten 91 plotted India's victory. Dhoni has been given land in Jharkhand, a state in eastern India, to build a cricket school, has been awarded an honorary doctorate and has also been made a wildlife warden of the Jim Corbett national park in the foothills of the Himalayas, one of the last refuges of the threatened Indian tiger.

Gerald Majola, the chief executive of Cricket South Africa, has indicated that a shortlist of six will be drawn up soon after the World Cup with a decision to be made by June. Other names on the list include the assistant coach, Vince Barnes, Allan Donald, who is currently New Zealand's bowling coach, and the former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming.

None, though, possesses the credibility of Kirsten. It will boil down not to whether South Africa want Kirsten as to whether Kirsten wants the job and that, as ever in South Africa, will involve delicate negotiations about the level of political interference that he may face.

• This article was amended on 4 April 2011. In the original Allan Donald was described as South Africa's bowling coach. This been corrected.

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